TLDR
- OpenAI completed a $6.6 billion employee stock sale that valued the company at $500 billion, making it the world’s largest startup
- The deal included investors Thrive Capital, SoftBank, Dragoneer Investment Group, Abu Dhabi’s MGX, and T. Rowe Price
- OpenAI’s valuation jumped from $300 billion during a SoftBank-led funding round earlier in 2025
- The company now surpasses Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which was valued at $400 billion in July
- OpenAI has 700 million users globally and expects $13 billion in revenue this year
OpenAI completed a deal allowing current and former employees to sell approximately $6.6 billion worth of company stock. The transaction valued the ChatGPT creator at $500 billion.
🚨 BREAKING: OpenAI hits $500 BILLION valuation
Officially becoming the world’s most valuable startup, surpassing SpaceX’s $456B valuation. pic.twitter.com/JmVrtCDzCf
— Ask Perplexity (@AskPerplexity) October 2, 2025
The sale involved several major investors including Thrive Capital, SoftBank Group Corp., Dragoneer Investment Group, Abu Dhabi’s MGX, and T. Rowe Price. This marks a jump from OpenAI’s previous $300 billion valuation from a SoftBank-led funding round earlier this year.
The new valuation makes OpenAI the world’s largest startup. It now exceeds the $400 billion valuation of SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket company.
Growing Competition in AI Market
OpenAI currently serves 700 million users worldwide. The company projects $13 billion in revenue for 2025.
The employee stock sale provides liquidity for staff members. This helps OpenAI compete with other tech companies recruiting AI talent.
Meta Platforms has been offering nine-figure pay packages to recruit researchers from OpenAI and other AI labs. These secondary sales give employees a way to benefit from the company’s growth without leaving.
The total amount of stock sold fell short of the $10 billion worth OpenAI made available. This suggests employees have confidence in the company’s future performance.
Company Transitions and Recent Launches
OpenAI is negotiating with Microsoft to convert from its nonprofit structure to a traditional for-profit company. The company was founded in 2015 as a nonprofit organization.
The planned changes would give the nonprofit entity control over a new public benefit corporation. Elon Musk, a co-founder who left OpenAI’s board in 2018, has sued to stop this transformation.
OpenAI faces growing competition from Google and Anthropic in the AI space. The company recently launched multiple new products to maintain its market position.
In August, OpenAI released GPT-5, its most powerful model to date. The company also released two open artificial intelligence models that can mimic human reasoning processes.
These launches came months after China’s DeepSeek gained attention with its own open software. OpenAI has also opened offices in India and South Korea.
Last week, OpenAI and Nvidia announced a partnership deal. Nvidia will invest $100 billion in OpenAI while providing computing capabilities for joint AI product development.
OpenAI continues building data center infrastructure through deals with companies like Oracle and SK Hynix. The company has not yet turned a profit despite its rapid growth and valuation increase.
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